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Rodina System
Volga is a continental planet in the Rodina System with varied climates in the Outer Rim of the Milky Way, terraformed, colonized and governed by the Greater Terran Union. Rodina System also has many mining stations, and is located at the approximate center of the Aurora Commissariat, and contains a Terran built Gateway. Volga is the capital of the Aurora Commissariat, which saw no warfare within its borders for several hundred years from the end of the Terran-Peronisti War until the War in Heaven. Volga is a major manufacturing and research center, and one of the most populated planets in the GTU. Discovery Originally designated Scorpio-UTX2372 when it was first discovered in 2023, the system was of intermittent interest for the next century and one of several dozen sites selected as a destination for the Al Idrisi Probes launched in 2071 by the European Federation. Following the declaration of the Greater Terran Union and the establishment of the first extra-solar colonies, the Scorpio star system was again the subject of rising interest. Automated drones and later manned research vessels surveyed the Scorpio system throughout the first few decades of the 23rd century, but its planets were not suited for large scale colonization. Instead, humanity’s presence in the system was limited to various mining and research stations. The largest permanent settlement was the Arctic Warfare Training Center established in 2271 and located on Scorpio 3. By the mid 2300s, various geoengineering technologies had made planet-wide terraforming economically viable. Eager to strengthen its position in the Outer Rim against its rivals in the Algan Republic and Peronisti Union, the GTU embarked on an enormous colonization campaign across the whole of the sector. Terra-forming the arctic deserts of Scorpio 3 would require a higher initial investment than other candidates across the Outer Rim, but the tremendous potential of the world could not be ignored. In 2343 the Terra-forming process began. Within a decade, the planet had been transformed into a world of enormous, sprawling grasslands, great oceans and majestic glaciers. Roughly one and a half times the size of Earth, it would take another decade for the planet’s climate, tectonics and magnetosphere to be fully assessed, but the world was eventually approved for colonization. Colonization The Eurasian Commissariat had won the bid to colonize the world during the intervening years and shortly after the planet had been approved, the first pioneers and basic infrastructure had been put into place. The first civilian colony ships carrying roughly 100,000 people arrived just 8 months later. High Marshal Qing Huang herself was present at the colony’s dedication, signing the orders which renamed the world of Scorpio III to Volga, and the system, Rodina. That same year, it was named the capital of the newly established Aurora Commissariat. What was once considered a backwater territory was now a core region of the Greater Terran Union. Terran-Florian War The ongoing wars against the Algan Republic and its allies in the Compact brought about enormous investments to the system. By the start of the 25th century, Volga was one of the most heavily populated planets in the entire nation. It attracted tens of millions of immigrants from across the Union, and eventually major state corporations. The invasion of the Greater Terran Union by the Florian Matriarchy in 2521 put considerable demands on the Rodina system and it was quickly flooded with refugees who had managed to escape the besieged worlds of the Outer Rim. Volga greatly expanded its terrestrial mining operations to help meet the demands of the war, and the establishment of Fleet Station Tadeusz Kościuszko in the neighboring Vistula System during the conflict has made heavy industry a key part of Volga’s economy ever since. The Prokopyev Machine Building Plant in particular has become one of the largest producers of military equipment in the Greater Terran Union, periodically eclipsing even Sirius Arms as the single biggest producer of main battle tanks and naval artillery. First Galactic War Rodina and its attending Aurora Commissariat has the unusual honor of being granted a campaign streamer to add to the Commissariat flag, an honor usual awarded to the flags of military units like Fleets or ground force divisions. This was a result of the systems actions following the capture of the Sirius system by the NEX Network in the opening stages of the war which cut Rodina off from communication with Earth. Following the declaration of Condition Black by the Commissar General and senior naval officer, the system would form a scratch fleet out of the mothballed warships and patrol vessels that constituted the garrison force. After destroying tiny pockets of NEX in nearby system Rodina would dispatch the fleet to the core to find out what had happened and if anyone was still alive. At the Battle of Sirius, they would recapture the prized Sirius fleet shipyards and relieve the besieged world of Akkadia which was fighting a losing resistance to a determined extermination campaign by the NEX. It would also restore communication between Earth and the outer rim and prevent the capture of the Dyson Sphere. In essence, Rodina had at a stroke saved the Union from complete collapse. Economy and Criminal Activity Today, Rodina is widely known as the jewel of the Outer Rim, a center of industry, finance, research, and culture. Food grown in the system is exported to a dozen other colonies in the region, alongside various chemical exports, industrial machinery, electronics, and hundreds of classes of civilian starships produced in its shipyards. The majority of the system’s 34 billion people resides on Volga, and the enormous skyscrapers of Novaya Moskva, its capital city, have become an iconic image across the entire Union. Universities both in Novaya Moskva and other major cities across the planet have developed an impressive reputation, while its local cuisine, especially Volga grown beef, has been prized and imitated even on Earth itself. There is seemingly no industry or field where Volga and the Rodina System do not excel. But the immense wealth of Rodina has brought with it a sophisticated criminal element. Corruption uncovered within the system’s raw material industries, while subsequently eliminated, remains a notable blight on the system’s reputation. Dozens of illegal settlements and anchorages are uncovered within Rodina each year, particularly around the system's outer planets and moons. Many of these were constructed by various criminal syndicates and piracy groups and there is little doubt that many more, perhaps hundreds, lay undiscovered and still operating across the system. Despite such difficulties, the Rodina system remains, above all, an enduring symbol of Terran resilience and power. It is proof that even a frigid wasteland, when confronted with the determination of humanity, can be transformed into a verdant paradise, a world worthy of the Greater Terran Union.